I have been taking 2 scoop Huel shakes for lunch and breakfast, with a normal dinner, for around 3 months now, and it has made me feel great! I have managed to lose 19lbs in this time, combined with a regular exercise regime.
Over the last few days I have noticed a strange ‘flutter’ in my heart and had it checked by a GP. He has advised I have an ectopic rythm and I am scheduled to go for a cardiograph in the next couple weeks.
I was just curious to see if anyone had anything similar, and if it could possibly be he result of restricting my calories so much during the working day?
From reading all other posts around heart and Huel, it seems that Huel is nothing but a benefit, but as I say, I’m just curious!
Interesting post, I hope you’re ok and it all works out! I haven’t come across anything like this before but I do recall a post back in January where someone said Huel actually improved their problems with heart rhythm… thought you’d be interested:
I think mine was caused due to malnutrition + stress + anxiety. Huel has helped fix the first one and made things much more stable. The difference between your and my situation: I used Huel to get extra calories.
Now… Sometimes, I still get an unstable rhythm that gives me a few extra beats over the course of a week. Nothing like it used to be, but still.
What is the cause? I think, in general, it is triggered by stress. In emotionally stressful situations I feel it the most. Sleep deprivation: rarely, but happens. Alcohol… kind of a mystery to me. It tends to cause some extra beats. Maybe because it has a depressive effects? Dunno.
My recommendation is to try to look at your lifestyle from an objective view. Things to ask yourself: Do you eat enough vitamins/proteins/fat? Do you get enough sleep? Do you sleep on a good schedule? Do you feel at ease? Are you easy with yourself? Do you work too much? Do you have that anxious feeling in your stomach? You seeing friends? Anything looming in the distance that is subconsciously stressing you? And and and
These are the things I look for in myself. Your stuff might be different or even something that requires medical attention. Wish you get rid of it fast! I know how crazy it one might make when the organ that keeps you alive is behaving funky.
Yeah @amtrix92, it was your post I was referring to in my OP.
I think my extra beats start when I eat too much. I tend to stick to Huel for breakfast and lunch, and don’t really worry about what I eat at dinner time as I have a deficit of around 1500 calories to play with!
I also think stress plays a part as I do get that anxious feeling you mentioned. I’m trying some different methods to help with this.
I guess this is nature’s way of telling me to sort my dinner time meals out, make them a bit smaller and healthier, and stress less!.
I’m usually quite in tune with what my body needs, but this threw me off a bit and, like you say, when it’s the organ that’s keeping you alive it makes it all that you can think about!
The only time I’ve ever experienced anything like that, I was taking 5-HTP, one of the precursors to Seratonin, because in some people it helps with depression (along with several of the B vitamins and Folate). Worked well, but after a while I found that the 5-HTP was causing the same sort of flutter you’re talking about, and I had to stop.
It’s possible that there could be something you’re sensitive to, similarly, in Huel. Or, of course, there’s every possibility that it’s completely coincidental. Have you tried taking a few days break from Huel to see if the symptom goes away?
I usually have a break from Huel over the weekend, and I did notice a reduction in the extra beats, however I was also away from work stress and I didn’t have any coffee so it could have been those also.
After some refelction, I think it is a combination of stress, caffeine, and poor diet (away from Huel). I’m going to take steps over the next week to improve all those factors and hopefully this will drastically reduce these flutters.
Coffee (caffeine) is definitely a trigger. When I was going through it, I remember going through the medical history and found out my Dad had to give up caffeinated sodas and all coffee in his 50s, because they caused PACs or PVCs (I forget which, Premature Atrial/Ventricular Contractions), which is often the “flutter” or “skipped heart beat” people talk about.
So yeah, I’d say as a lay person, caffeine and stress would feel like a more likely culprit than Huel.
Hi @Martinol84, how are you getting on with this now? I started Huel in April 2019, and around May time I started experiencing Atrial fibrillation. After an echocardiogram, 3 specialists, 3 lots of bloods and many ECGs, all tests came back fine and it was determined I had paroxysmal AF.
However, around 20th March 2020 I stopped taking Huel, and the atrial fibrillation got bad for a week, then from April 1st, I haven’t had one episode. 6 weeks on and it seems to have gone entirely. Looking back at records, the worst series of episodes were always roughly a week after stopping Huel short term, whether on holiday or just away for work.
I’d be interested to know if you’re still using Huel, do you still have AF? If you’re not using Huel, is it still happening?
Hi @jon94, no this stopped pretty quickly after I posted this. I had ECG, and blood taken at hospital and it was diagnosed as an ectopic heartbeat which they put down to stress.
I don’t think Huel was directly linked to my issue as I am still using Huel and have had no issues since.
Sorry I can’t be more help. Sounds like your issue might be a bit different to mine.
AF (atrial fibrillation) and VEs (Ventricular Ectopics or Extrasystoles) are two completely different beasts.
It’s highly unlikely that Huel would have anything to do with either. Coffee and wine can be known to exacerbate AF but probably aren’t the underlying cause. A lot of people have AF, and VEs, without knowing about it. I can get AF if I drink a lot of red wine but not at any other time that I’m aware of.
It’s worth looking at what else was going on in your life around the same time if you want to look for triggers. Sometimes you just can’t pinpoint anything however.
I’ve had only been using huel for less then a month It started giving me the runs. Before my renewal of huel I kept having like your self I’ve heart palpitations and even my heart rate jumping up to 160 for no reason I had to have an over night stay at hospital they have put me on beta blocker with more investigations
Last few day I’ve had to be taken in by ambulance to hospital and they cannot seem to find out what wrong with me.
Because of the runs, I had to stop taking huel but after reading this post it has concern me alot.
They have ruled out heart attack but the issue is I was close to my first renewal of huel when this all started I had stopped taking huel due to the runs,
Week after stop using huel fast heart rate started
I am waiting on a cardo echogram as the next line of investigation.
